Calera Central Coast Viognier 2014

About the Region

An immense expanse of wine-growing real estate, covering portions of six counties between Santa Barbara and the San Francisco Bay Area and including more than 100,000 acres of vineyards, the Central Coast region includes the Santa Maria Valley, the Santa Ynez Valley and Monterey viticultural areas, and more than 20 other appellations. Chardonnay is the main grape planted, but there are scores of others, from albariño to zinfandel, with such rarities as counoise, mondeuse, and vermentino in between.

Also in the Region

Viognier

The origins of viognier are unclear, but it may come from the Dalmatian coast, and seems to have been grown in France's Rhône Valley for almost 2,000 years. It is the main white wine grape of the Northern Rhône (Condrieu most importantly), and is traditionally blended with other Rhône varieties like roussanne, marsanne, and grenache blanc, throughout the region. An intensely aromatic grape, It is also sometimes added to red wines to enhance their bouquet. Viognier is now widely grown in the Languedoc-Roussillon as well, and has produced good wines in Australia, Argentina, and California; it has also done surprisingly well, on a small scale in Virginia and Texas. Viognier can be a banal wine with little more than an intense perfume to identify it, but it can also be as fine and complex as anything chardonnay can produce.